The 11 hottest startups in Italy

Musixmatch CEO Massimo CiociolaMusixmatch
Italy isn't traditionally thought of as part of Europe's tech cluster, but it has a growing collection of startups creating products and services that are used around the world.

11. BeMyEye — lets you earn money as a mystery shopper

BeMyEye is a crowdsourcing site that lets retailers pay people to check stores and act as mystery shoppers. The company operates in Italy, Germany, France, and the UK. Retailers can publish a job on BeMyEye, and then local users can fulfil the role of mystery shopper and check out what's going on in the store.

The company was started by former Motorola employee Gian Luca Petrelli in 2011, and has raised over $2.8 million in funding from Capital Bancorp, RedSeed Ventures, Pietro De Nardis and 360 Capital Partners.

Total amount raised: $2.8 million

Headcount: 38

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10. Circle Garage — the touchless smart watch

Circle Garage is an Italian startup that produces hardware products. Its current product is the Hiris, a wearable device that sits on your wrist that you don't actually need to touch. Instead, you just have to wave your hand over the watch screen in a certain way for it to understand what function you want it to do, which makes it useful for people like snowboarders who have to wear gloves. The Hiris has raised over $87,000 on crowdfunding site Indiegogo, which is over its target amount.

8. GiPStech — GPS location on steroids

GIPStech creates localisation technology for places where GPS just doesn't cut it. Shops can use it to track customers, and hospitals can also use the technology to track patients and medical equipment.

The company can even estimate which direction a customers is facing, and plot that information on a map of the store or hospital. The Rende-based company raised a €200,000 seed round in 2014 from the Italian Angels for Growth fund.

Total amount raised: $272,000

Headcount: 7

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7. Stereomood — an algorithm for matching your music to your mood

Founded in Milan in 2008, Stereomood tries to match users' moods to music from blogs around the internet. Users come to the site, select their mood, and it uses data from other users to suggest music that they might like. Every month it raises money to support its server costs, keeping the site alive.

6. Pathflow — "real-life analytics"

Rome-based Pathflow is a company that helps businesses track what it calls "real-life analytics." Companies can use Pathflow to measure what customers actually do in their shops, and then act on that data. The software isn't available to everyone yet, but it's being trialled in retail stores across Italy.

5. AppsBuilder — apps with no coding required

Creating an app isn't easy — but Milan-based startup AppsBuilder is trying to make it more simple. The site lets developers put together templates and create their own apps with no coding experience required.

It was launched in Milan in 2010, and has since grown to include another office in Catania. The company raised $1.5 million in funding in 2014 from Italian VC fund United Ventures.

Total amount raised: $3.5 million

Headcount: 18

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4. MusiXmatch — 7 million lyrics in 38 different languages

MusiXmatch is a lyrics database site that was started in Bologna, Italy, in 2010. Since then, it has grown to over 30 million users, and has over 7 million lyrics on its site in 38 different languages. The company has also launched mobile apps that let you listen to music with the lyrics right there with you, as well as a video clip sharing app (called Clip).

MusiXmatch has brought in over $10 million in funding, including $5 million from Roberto Condulmari, Kairos Legacy Partners, Paolo Basilico, United Ventures, and P101.

Total amount raised: $10.1 million

Headcount: 39

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3. Arduino — open-source computer chips

Arduino is an Italian hardware startup that creates open-source computer chips that can be used to interact with the real world.

The chip itself has been around since 2005, when it was created by Italian students as a design project. Since then, the chip's developer has created 16 versions. The project has survived various departures and legal threats, and remains popular today.

Total amount raised: Unknown

Headcount: 36

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2. iubenda — easy-peasy privacy policy

Milan-based iubenda lets startups easily create a privacy policy for their website, Facebook app, or mobile app by simply entering in what they do, as well as which services they use. iubenda does the hard work, and generates an embeddable privacy policy that is easy to read, and is remotely updated to stay current (and legal).

CEO Andrea Giannangelo started developing websites at age 10, and started iubenda in 2011 with $100,000 in seed funding from investors including startup accelerator Boox, Gianluca Dettori, Andrea Di Camillo, Stefano Bernardi, and Marco Magnocavallo.

Total amount raised: $100,000

Headcount: 6

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1. YOOX — Net-a-Porter's parent

Yoox CEO Federico Marchetti
Gustavo Caballero/Getty Images for The New York Times International Luxury Conference

Yoox is a fashion website that lets people order clothes online. It's hugely popular in Italy in addition to over 100 different countries around the world.

It was announced in March that Yoox had acquired Net-a-Porter, the British fashion sale website. The two sites merged to create one large online fashion retailer: Yoox Net-a-Porter Group.